God’s plans are bigger than our hard times.

This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”

Genesis 41:37-38

In one conversation Joseph went from prisoner to prime minister. God brought him up from “the pit” (that’s the word used to describe Egyptian prison in Genesis 41:14) to the palace. And as Joseph interpreted the dreams that God had given Pharaoh to prepare Egypt and the world to be saved from a severe seven year drought and famine, the court of the king recognized something very different in Joseph. He was a man controlled by the Spirit of God. In this passage a pagan king recognizes the Word of God at work in the prophet of God as a move of the Spirit of God. This is significant. Pharaoh honored God by believing the revealed truth and then acting on it by appointing Joseph to administrate Egypt’s famine preparations.

Of course ultimately God was going to use Joseph’s wise plans to save the children of Israel and re-unite Jacob’s children in Egypt. But that future was nowhere near Joseph’s thoughts as he responded to his appointment to this new position with an authority second only to the king of Egypt. What is here strongly is a faith response in Pharaoh that is pleasing to the Lord. There is a sovereign spiritual move of God in an entire nation that gave recognition to the humbled and obedient faith of Joseph and the leadership that God had always revealed would be known in Joseph. From Joseph’s earliest dreams, God had prepared him for this moment. There is a beautiful grace given to Joseph, to Egypt, to the world, and to Joseph’s family through revelation and obedience. They would be cared for in the coming unprecedented hardship.

Joseph spoke true words, although he suffered unjustly, and God rewarded him richly. And Jesus is an even better Joseph. Jesus suffered at the hands of sinners so that the world might be saved. And God has now exalted Jesus with the name above all names so that every knee will bow before Him one day and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father!

My own denials are perhaps even worse.

Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:74-75

I am thankful that the scriptures so accurately record the failures of human beings even as they try to obey and follow God. Here is Peter who on one hand is trying to see from a distance what is happening to Jesus during His trial, while on the other hand in fear and shame denies even knowing Jesus when confronted... he does this THREE times. He is so much like all of us. Our hearts are a patchwork of belief and denial, of bravery and treachery.

It isn’t easy to follow Jesus. And at times our sinful self protection will pull us away from truly being the disciples we should be. How like Peter are my convenient denials. I am quick to do them without thinking. I quietly go along with my heart telling me not to speak up, not wanting to upset a situation. I feel the prompt of the Holy Spirit to talk about Jesus with a friend, but then choke it down in disobedience with my sinful self rushing in with a hundred denying excuses that show my unwillingness to risk my pride to obey the Lord for the sake of the gospel. How like Peter are my regular denials!

Peter went out at the rooster’s crowing and bitterly wept over his own pride and foolishness. He still loved the Master he denied. Do I repent with the same deep feeling? Do I turn from my denials to be a bold believer? Do I love Jesus enough to truly grieve and repent from my own attempts at being like everybody else when Jesus has commanded me to follow Him and be His disciple so that the world can see Jesus in me? These pressing questions call me to yield to the authority of my Lord, to listen to and obey His Word, and to move beyond the grief over my divided heart to the joy of obeying and living in Christ.

All this world needs now is in Jesus.

Give attention to me, my people,

and give ear to me, my nation;

for a law will go out from me,

and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.

My righteousness draws near,

my salvation has gone out,

and my arms will judge the peoples;

the coastlands hope for me,

and for my arm they wait.

Isaiah 51:4-5

I can’t help but see the impact of the gospel as the fulfillment of this wonderful invitation from God. Jesus is the justice of God set out for the people of the earth. In the redeeming work of Jesus Christ Who died for every human sin and whose righteousness will set right every injustice, we have the light for the world. He has set His church as a city on a hill to give His light in the darkness. And even though we now live is some very dark days, Jesus is the hope of our salvation and the solution to our problems.

God longs to set His justice, His grace, His healing mercies over all the world. He wants His church to faithfully share the gospel and to make disciples so that the world might be healed. In Jesus, the righteousness of God has drawn near and stays near to every heart that trusts in Him. In Jesus is all the hope this world looks for right now. In Jesus, justice can be found, hope can be realized, and salvation can be forever the joy of all who believe!

perspective and praise over problems

For he will hide me in his shelter

in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up

above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

Psalm 27:5-6

David’s experience of deliverance from the hard-pressing threats of his enemies led him to faithfully worship God. In this psalm he turned to God when the trouble began, he trusted God to deal with it, and he praised God as he was delivered from it. And in verses five and six the immediate word pictures of God’s complete care provide insight and hope for us when we find ourselves dealing with a life difficulty.

All of us have that occasional “day of trouble”. Sometimes we see them coming. Sometimes they bum-rush us from a back alley as we are merely minding our own business. We have been in a season like this for almost all of 2020! And God is present with us. We call out to Him and He shelters and saves. David’s way of describing it was that he found protection... God hid him in his shelter. God covered him under God’s own tent. God brought him to the safe high ground lifting David upon a rock.

The response to God’s nearness and deliverance on the part of David is immediate. The high rock gave new perspective. David was above all the trouble caused by his enemies. As he dwelt close to God upon the rock, the threats of his enemies receded. The tent that God sheltered David under became a tabernacle of worship. There David worshiped with sacrifices, with shouts of joy, and in song to the Lord, rejoicing and praising the God Who never leaves us alone in our troubles.

In all difficulty, Jesus is near. And because He saved us from ALL trouble caused by sin and death, He will deliver us when we call on Him. His blood already covers our sin and shelters us. His love lifts us up. His righteousness clothes us in praise. He is the Rock of Ages! In Jesus we can stand strong and secure! And we can shout and sing despite our troubles because Jesus has defeated our worst enemies: sin and death! 

God blesses when the world is unjust.

His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.

Genesis 39:3-4

The story of Joseph is one of the triumph of God despite jealousy, hate, and racially motivated injustice. The trouble that Joseph faced came both from within his own family (his brothers were jealous of his father’s favoritism and wished Joseph dead... they settled for selling him into slavery to get him out of their lives) and also from with a majority culture that became his new normal (the Egyptians were prejudiced against him... they ethnically derided him as “the Hebrew” and devalued him as a slave and then eventually as a prisoner). Joseph was framed by lies and injustice. Yet in all of the story of Joseph, God was with him, bringing greater glory out of his awful circumstances.

Joseph’s Egyptian master, Potiphar, was well aware of Joseph’s commitment to Yahweh. The text goes out of its way twice to tell us his master saw the LORD as the reason that Joseph was blessed, and knowing that, made Joseph the head over his household. Joseph was the chief of staff over all that occurred in Potiphar’s life and it went very well as a result. God blessed the Egyptian’s household under Joseph’s wise and capable service.

Having God’s blessing however does not mean that we should expect to never know any hardship. If anything, the story of the life of Joseph is that God uses the hardships to bring about even greater blessings. The lows of Joseph’s story accentuate God’s mercies and deliverance. Joseph goes from a pit of persecution to become an administrator for one of the wealthiest families in the world at that time. He later goes from prison to the palace. Along the way God moves him past hate, misunderstandings, lies, and horrible injustice to be the recipient of blessing, service, care, and wisdom which Joseph freely shares with the culture that had once minimized him. 

Joseph is never a helpless, bitter victim. God shows us in his story how we must trust as God works even when people do their worst to us. And even if people do their worst to us, God still blesses and saves. We can expect that in a society of sinners, we will always have to correct injustice. But even then, God is always blessing and through the gospel, saving beyond our broken human system!

destructive divisions

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

The collective church is a very special and holy group of people. When believers gather together, God dwells in us by His Spirit in a unique way in that assembly. That is what Paul is instructing the church in Corinth to understand. The “you” is these two verses is plural. Paul is saying that “y’all” are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When individual Christians gather together for “church”, they are all a temple in which the Spirit of God lives. That is a very holy assembly, never to be entered into lightly.

The Corinthian church struggled to understand this. Paul would need to instruct them on a whole list of problems that they needed to correct so that they would stop destroying the beauty of this holy temple. They were in grave danger of God’s judgment. In order to right themselves and restore the correct picture of this holy temple, they would need to repent and change or they would face the discipline of God Who does not take lightly our light views of His holy church.

Divisiveness was a huge problem in Corinth. One of their first kinds of divisiveness was over leadership personalities. Some had taken pride in the fact that they were originally part of Paul’s initial evangelism in Corinth. Others were proud to have been disciples in the ministry of Apollos. A third group was influenced most by the ministry of Peter (Cephas in 1 Corinthians 3:21). But all of this fracturing was threatening to tear down the temple built on Christ. Divisiveness needed to be turned from at all costs.

And what needed to be loved, changed, and turned to was this commitment to the beauty of God’s holy temple, the church, as believers were gathered together. This is still important today. My heart grieves for the divisions that currently crumple God’s temple. 

Lord,

Deliver Christians from personality and celebrity divisiveness! We are so fleshly. Delivers us from minor theological bickering! We are so petty. Deliver us from racial or ethnic divisiveness! We are so prejudiced. Deliver us from political bickering! We are so idolatrous. Make us truly one, O Lord, a holy temple where we meet with You as You live in us. Lead us to turn from these things to Jesus! Build that temple strongly as we unite around the message and power of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, our only foundation!

Amen

Works righteousness is a heavy burden.

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not ractice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

Matthew 23:2-4

The leaders of the synagogue in Jesus’ day would actually sit at a special bench known as “Moses’ seat” when teaching on the Law during the assembly. It was considered the place of authority. But the problem was that the leaders had gone so far beyond what the God had meant in the Law when teaching the people. They turned God’s truth (which the people, according to Jesus, should pay close attention to as it is read) into an awful works-based salvation with their human interpretations and additions. The Pharisees added over 600 addendums to God’s Law. The scribes did the opposite, rejecting vast portions of the Old Testament. This was a heavy burden. This is what Jesus told his hearers to ignore. This is what the leaders themselves could not practice although they preached it.

Even though I have never sat in a synagogue sermon, I have imbibed much of this works-based righteousness. It stokes the fires of selfish pride in me, I must confess. A part of me enjoys being “holier-than-thou” when comparing myself with others. I say this in shame, but I think I am not the only one. Just like both liberals (scribes) and conservatives (Pharisees) were caught up in works righteousness false teaching in Jesus’ day, so this dark deception is still very much all around us.

I constantly repent of judgmentalism. I can look down on people because I think I have “kept the rules” better. But I also know people who live by a different set of derived rules who do the very same thing against me. And our society is quickly turning against Christian faith because we don’t play by their rules when it comes to sexuality and the exclusivity of the Christian gospel. Antagonism against the gospel gets wrapped up in “tolerance” messaging and judgmentalism turns against us. Yet this is just another kind of warped works righteousness.

All works-based righteousness results in judgmentalism and, whether it be liberal or conservative in its origin or outlook, is evil. All of it. It is what divides us even now. It destroys human lives. It makes life hard for all of us. It distorts the saving gospel. We must look only to Jesus! He had it right when He warned us against it. Only Jesus can save us. Only His righteousness offered to broken sinners who turn to Him by faith and reject their own hell-bound works-based efforts will change us. Only when Jesus changes us and gives us His holiness can the world truly change. 

the God Who carries

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been borne by me from before your birth,

carried from the womb;

even to your old age I am he,

and to gray hairs I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear;

I will carry and will save.”

Isaiah 46:3-4

When God planned to make of Israel His chosen people, His covenant love was not contingent upon them. It is unconditional. He loved and cared for Israel before they were born as a nation. He carried the nation even as they were just a promise to Abraham... not even yet conceived in Sarah’s womb. He carried them in His faithfulness to Isaac and Jacob. He carried them as twelve tribes grew into a numerous and unique people of God in Egypt. He carried them as Moses led them out of Egyptian slavery. He carried them as they struggled against the Lord in the wilderness. He carried them as Joshua led them through to conquer the Promised Land. He carried them through oppression as judges delivered the people. He carried them under king Saul, king David, and king Solomon. He carried them as civil war split the nation in two for generations. God carried Israel even when Assyria wiped out the Northern Kingdom and Babylon led Judah captive. He carried them when Jerusalem was resettled and the exiles came home. He carried them through until John the Baptist preached a new kingdom that was coming. He carried them as Jesus was born, preached, healed, and died for the nation.

The God Who is still keeping His promises to Israel is also in covenant through Christ with believers. He loves us too before we ever loved Him, sending His Son to take our death upon Himself so that we can have eternal life in Jesus. He redeemed us when we were slaves to sin. He saved us although we were His enemies who still tend to wander away. He gives us life in a world filled with deadly peril and oppression. He gives us victory over slavery, over the power of the grave, over the power of sin, and has made for us a place in His Father’s house in heaven. He is carrying us with a firm guarantee that we will be at Jesus’ side when He returns to rule this earth. Truly God has carried His people in His hands and heart! Truly He carries us even now! And most assuredly, He will always carry us for His glory and our good! Amen!

Pathmaker

All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,

for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Psalm 25:10

Lord,

There is never a way You take me

that isn’t first filled with Your mercy

Every time I come before Your face

I do so because of Your saving grace

The paths You’ve made to lead me above

are carefully crafted in saving love

though the way is narrow and tight

I am protected by Your awesome power and might

No storm that blows can do me harm

hidden in the shelter of Your arm

You have provided the ways to keep me sure

as I trust in You and I obey Your Word

Although I am a sinner now forgiven

in Christ You give me all that I need for living

Satisfied daily by Your good gifts

I seek Your precepts now as I live

I may grow weary, and if I fall

I will call out for You to recover it all

You will hear my cry, You will defend my soul

for Your steadfast love is always in control

Lord I will love You all my days

and I will seek Your paths as my only ways

I will walk in them as I follow You

seeking Your glory and worship in all I do

Amen

downgrade to false security

And they said to him, “Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?” And the priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.

Judges 18:19-20

Anytime we add something to what God has promised, we take away from the truth. Anytime we trust a human achievement over God’s provisions our hearts grow colder and stray from the worship of the Lord. 

The book of Judges ends with cautionary cultural tales. In chapters 17 and 18 we have the story of how northern Israel was associated with a corrupt, idolatrous perversion of the worship of the Lord. It began here and lasted for hundreds of years. First, a man from Ephraim named Micah admits to his mother that he had stolen a small fortune in silver from her. She is so “happy” with him for giving back what was hers in the first place that she instructs Micah to make an idol from it. (By the way, this sounds like a cover story). He promptly does so, then Micah recruits a less then noble Levite to come to his home and serve as a priest in his own custom made, probably quite profitable, family religion. It’s like a roadside attraction “See Micah’s Shrine!” on every billboard for miles before Micah’s home. And they all wildly believe that Yahweh will prosper this idolatrous perversion of Jewish faith (Judges 17:13).

And then we get to scene two of this idolatrous story. Some Danites who are pretty late to the party of settling Canaan come looking for a place to conquer as their family inheritance. They eventually make it to Micah’s little attraction for lodging. They ask of the priest there what will become of their quest. He blesses their journey. They then go on to gain new territory through “aggressive negotiations” and on their way back with six hundred armed men in a war party, they basically decided to circle back to Micah’s little tourist haven and steal the entire religious system set up there. The Danites end up with a turn-key apostasy complete with a priesthood, priestly garments, false idols, and eventually a center of worship that they set up in their new forcefully acquired real-estate venture.

A theme in Judges is that people did “what was right in their own eyes”. Micah followed this theme by stealing from his own mother. He continued doing it by crafting his own religion. The Danites did so by trusting a false priest (who is explained to be the grandson of Moses in the shocking reveal - see Judges 18:30), and stealing a religion for themselves. Straying from the truth just a little will lead to a great mess. It will pull away hearts from worship. It leads to a false sense of security and to generations of unbelief. This is why today I must always guard the gospel, rehearse it in my heart daily, and stay focused on the truth that only Jesus can save me.

striving with God... and yielding

And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel.

Genesis 35:10

Jacob’s story is one of constant tension and conflict. Tension marked his family,,, conflict with his father and his brother. Jacob went to his uncle Laban to avoid the worst in that tension, only to get into conflict with the man who took him in and gave him his only job. He had tension in his own household with a small army of children born from four different mothers. And his life was marked by spiritual conflicts due to an “in and out” relationship with God. Even just before this official “naming” ceremony, Jacob had to purge his household of idols so he could build a proper altar to God. Despite all these sins and failures, God kept His promise to Jacob and gave him a new name based on that rocky history of conflict: “Israel” - striver with God.

God saw Jacob for exactly what he was. God kept covenant with him despite all these awful struggles. The Lord was the reason for all the success that came to Jacob and his home. Jacob knew this and believed it. He built altars and he renamed places in recognition that God was indeed the “winner” in all these difficulties. It took Jacob much of his life to get there, but he finally became a patriarch of faith and a God-follower. He strove with God and God won... literally (once physically: Genesis 32:26-30)... twice (and another time spiritually: Genesis 35:11-12).

Jacob only yielded to God after much striving, And when he saw God as his strength and sustainer, he changed to truly begin worshiping the mighty Lord. It took getting a new name and a gimpy hip for that obedience to finally happen. But there is one greater than Jacob Who quickly prayed “not my will, but Yours be done” in the tension and spiritual wrestling that existed in Gethsemane before Calvary. Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah, the family of Jacob, an Israelite. He was the last king to come from Jacob’s body as the One promised of God. And in His yielding to die for us, all sin and all conflict, all striving and tension shall cease in the grace of His forgiveness!

Know God’s Mind

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16

I can know

what You think

for You show

in Your Word

the thoughts of God

I can follow

what You want

and I can go

where You send

as I read the Word of God

I don’t guess...

I know

You are not vague...

You clearly show

Your will in Your Word

It’s not my wisdom

but Yours. O Lord

You are not hidden

for Your Spirit moves

in the pages of Your Word

The revelation

of God’s Truth

without hesitation

is mine to use

daily in Your Word

Your mind I know

Christ’s will is done

and I will go

where You send me

in Your Word

by Your Spirit

for Your glory

beyond motivation to true empowerment

He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:29-31

I’ve heard these verses used to put perspective on human achievement. But that is not the point of them. And sadly, I’ve been guilty of seeing them that way as well. In Christian High School, verse 31 was a motivational motto for my school soccer team. It felt quite motivational and inspirational to quote it together before and after games. But I don’t think I saw the truth here quite correctly. This verse didn’t help me last longer on the field or create any more athletic skill than I normally had. There is much more here than a magic incantation to inspire athletic endurance.

This passage twice repeats the concepts of “strength” vs being “faint”. But the thoughts don’t originate just in these three verses. Instead, the first time strength, weariness, and faint feelings emerge are in verse 28, where Israel is reminded to return to trusting a strong Creator Who Himself never tires or grows weary or feels faint. They are told to focus their hope upon the Everlasting God.

The Lord gives power to us when we are wearied by life. God increases strength by being our strength when we have none. Jesus Himself promised us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He promised to be with us always. He sent His Spirit to be the power we would receive. We are only as strong as God is! We have no power of our own. It is patient faith that is the call upon us. We don’t run and win with our own legs. We don’t endure because we have such power. God has to be our strength and our trust. We are just naturally weary and exhausted!

Exhaustion is a word that has risen to the forefront of cultural conversation the last month or so. People are tired of the status quo, of ineffective leaders, of social inequities going unchanged, of the lives of our neediest being debated rather than their pain abated. People are tired of three months of social distancing and only online connection. Weary souls are ripe now for a fresh look at the God Who gives strength. He can save the weary, Jesus can lead the tired and exhausted and broken soul into rest and re-empowerment through the glory of the gospel! It is time to trust in the Lord! It is time for Christians to demonstrate this power and might by pointing weary and exhausted souls in repentance to their Savior.

transcending the chaos

All the ends of the earth shall remember

and turn to the LORD,

and all the families of the nations

shall worship before you.

For kingship belongs to the LORD,

and he rules over the nations.

Psalm 22:27-28

Psalm 22 is a gospel-saturated masterpiece of prophetic poetry, all centered around the suffering of the Son of God, and His exaltation and deliverance. Some bible scholars go so far as to speculate that Jesus did more than quote the first verse from the cross... He may have sung out this Psalm in its entirety.

Although it begins as a song of suffering, it ends as a confident assertion of God’s deliverance and power. It begins with feeling that God has forsaken His king. It is filled with trial and suffering. The psalm remembers how God has historically cared for His people (Psalm 22:4-5). It confidently transitions into a commitment to praise God Who delivers those who trust Him in affliction (Psalm 22:22-26). This song calls us to have faith in times of our worst fear. It calls us to trust God in our trouble. It leads us to praise while in a predicament. It promotes confidence during our chaos. And for that reason it is a perfect reminder for us today.

2020 has been chaotic. I’m nearly 57. My childhood was spent witnessing social upheaval in the 60’s and 70’s in a decades long set of changes. I witnessed revolution and racial tension when I was a child. Now I am seeing it all again. But this time it is not playing out in a matter of years, but in a matter of days, and I am an adult. So much seems different. My teenage and young adult years were lived under the threat of nuclear war. But then the rhetoric from politicians from both sides was smooth... spoken by careful communicators. And somehow the Cold War accomplished the toppling of a Soviet threat peacefully. But today, populist hothead leaders actually make the 80’s and early 90’s feel so much safer! 

Now, in this chaos, is the time to remember... kingship belongs to the Lord. He rules the nations. His will transcends the chaos. Jesus, in the hope of the gospel, is ending these tensions by making one body of many people worldwide. The united church can grasp hands of many colors and show the power of God to bring people together where sin and hate separate. The gospel will be the only hope to bring the people of the earth together. Because Jesus suffered, died, and rose again, we can see the worst hells ended on earth. It is in that hope that I will trust and live!

God is God in spite of who we are.

And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Judges 16:30

It is hard to make sense of the Samson biography. It is a tragedy of heroic proportions. He is the least likable judge, though his story starts out like he ought to get superhero treatment. But Samson was ultimately a sick, selfish disappointment... a waste of so much potential. He was the weakest strong man ever. He was a lifelong rebel whom God chose to still empower. He didn’t really lead Israel in any way, choosing always to promote his own selfish ambitions and image. He wasn’t a military leader, a political leader, definitely not a spiritual leader, and even Israel at one point just wanted to hand him over to the Philistines! Yet God used his life sovereignly to keep the Philistines from overwhelming Israel. 

Samson lived on sick jokes, sadistic actions, and psychotic threats. He spent more time partying with the Philistines than he spent praying in worship with the Israelites. He wrote sick poetry over his violent exploits. He seems more serial killer than savior.

Everywhere Samson went he racked up an 80’s action movie body count in his wake. It started with a lion that attacked him (Judges 14:6). It quickly escalated to thirty men in one night (Judges 14:19). Then he captured and tortured 300 wild foxes in an act of animal cruelty and mass arson that destroyed an entire agricultural economy (Judges 15:4-5). This led to an encounter where he killed something over 1000 people, bashing them to death with a donkey’s jawbone (Judges 15:25-16) like some sort of primal raging animal. Samson was one sick, sick dude.

In the final act of Samson’s life he started hanging out exclusively with Philistine prostitutes. Nothing holy about that... and his favorite was Delilah, who conspired his demise with Philistine leaders who figured out Samson’s weakness. He gave in to her seductions, thinking himself invincible. And once the Spirit of God finally left him, he was weak. Only at the end, when he truly asked of God one last time did God use the broken man a final time so that in death, he brought down more Philistines than in life, in a staggering violent house party collapse that killed 3000.

What’s the possible point of Samson’s story? He is not the true savior. You can’t save yourself or others by your own power. That just brings more sickness and sin. Yet God can choose to use the worst actions of the worst people to accomplish His sovereign purposes. Samson was a failed savior in many ways, but there is One Who is a true and better Savior. Jesus is our strong Lord. Jesus trusted His father. Jesus stretched forth His hands and took the blows that nailed Him to the cross to die, not to avenge people, but to take the wrath of God so that lives might be saved, not taken. And Jesus accomplished the most in His death, saving a world. He is the true, strong, promised Savior. He truly kept all that God demanded of the One Who would save His people. 

tired of lies

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.

Genesis 31:42

How do you turn a con man into a man of integrity? God did it to Jacob by putting him into the ultimate twenty year con game. In the end Jacob was weary of being lied to and manipulated. After deceiving his own father to con Esau out of the birthright and blessing of his father Isaac, Jacob went to his uncle Laban and there he was worked over by the lies and deception, changes and smooth manipulation of Laban. Jacob, who was himself a charming, smooth-operating schemer would be outschemed by his conniving used-camel-salesman uncle. Jacob grew sick of the lies, deception, and chess move strategies that had become his life.

When Jacob arrived in Laban’s household he had nothing but the clothes on his back. He was young, single, homeless, and penniless. Laban welcomed him, took him in, fed him and offered him a job as the supervisor over all his herdsmen. Jacob’s only wage request: “Let me marry your daughter Rachel.” They agreed to a seven year contract only for Laban to pull a switch-a-roo and substitute the less desirable Leah to Jacob who was too drunk to know who was in his wedding night bed.

When Jacob complained, Laban negotiated another slick deal in his favor, so Rachel would become Jacob’s second wife in exchange for seven more year’s work. Jacob then stayed on after that for six more years in a livestock breeding contract with Laban so that he could earn the means to care for his now large and hungry family that had grown to twelve sons, several daughters, four wives, servants, and all the things needed to manage this lifestyle. 

When Jacob finally forcefully left employment under his manipulative uncle, he chose to reverse con the old con man. He fled secretly. He left a cover story to buy time. He was warned by God that it was time to go back to Canaan. But he was so weary of the lies and the deception. Even though he was finally getting some direction from God, he was still willing to deceive to leave. And it didn’t work out wonderfully. It was clunky. Sin gummed it up even as God wanted Jacob to just trust in Him.

God wants to show Himself when we will turn from our manipulative efforts at controlling our lives. He wants us to trust Him. That is what faith in Jesus is. It isn’t about us moving things around, using people, working markets, making a living to get what we want. It is about trusting only what God has done for us so that He can change us. We must give up on our own strength and effort and trust Jesus.